One-trial appetitive conditioning in the sexual behavior system

Hilliard, Stewart; Nguyen, Michael P.; Domjan, Michael

doi:10.3758/bf03209399

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…The present findings confirm that sexual arousal can be conditioned to contextual cues in male Japanese quail, and that the conditioned arousal is manifest in increased responsiveness to a probe stimulus that contains the head and some neck feathers of a female quail (Domjan, Greene, & North, 1989;Hilliard et al, 1997). Exposure to the conditioned contextual cues also resulted in the release of more sperm.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Additional research is required to decide between these alternatives. However, in either case, the present results demonstrate Pavlovian control of sperm release, because the increased responsiveness of male quail to the probe stimulus was a product of Pavlovian processes (Domjan, Akins, & Vandergriff, 1992;Hilliard et al, 1997).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 58%

“…The CS was provided by the contextual cues of a distinctive experimental chamber. Previous research indicated that context conditioning increases the responsivity of males to the visual cues provided by a female's head (Hilliard, Nguyen, & Domjan, 1997). In the present study, we were interested in whether exposure to the sexually conditioned contextual cues would also increase the quantity and quality of sperm released, and perhaps elevate serum testosterone levels.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

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The Adaptive Significance of Sexual Conditioning: Pavlovian Control of Sperm Release

1998

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Male quail received Pavlovian conditioning trials that consisted of placement in a distinctive experimental chamber (the conditioned stimulus) paired with the opportunity to copulate with a female (the unconditioned stimulus). For control subjects, exposures to the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli were unpaired. After four and six trials, each subject was placed in the experimental chamber with a probe stimulus that included some of the visual cues of a female's head and neck. Pavlovian conditioning increased how much time subjects spent near the probe stimulus. Conditioned subjects also released greater volumes of semen and greater numbers of spermatozoa than the control subjects. Significant differences were not obtained in serum testosterone levels or in other measures of sperm quality. These results demonstrate that sexual Pavlovian conditioning can affect reflexes involved in sperm release and thereby modulate reproductive fitness.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 58%

mentioning

confidence: 97%

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The Adaptive Significance of Sexual Conditioning: Pavlovian Control of Sperm Release

1998

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“…The pretest was conducted in the subjects' home cages. Although a single copulatory episode can increase responsiveness to the cues of a female's head, this occurs only if the copulatory episode takes place in the context in which the subjects are tested, rather than in the subjects' home cages (Hilliard, Nguyen, & Domjan, 1997).…”

Section: Us-us Versus Cs-us Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning with arbitrary versus ecological conditioned stimuli: Evidence from sexual conditioning

Domjan

Cusato

Krause

2004

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

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Laboratory investigations of Pavlovian conditioning typically involve the association of an arbitrary conditioned stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US) that has no inherent relation to the CS. However, arbitrary CSs are unlikely to become conditioned outside the laboratory, because they do not occur often enough with the US to result in an association. Learning under natural circumstances is likely only if the CS has a preexisting relation to the US. Recent studies of sexual conditioning have shown that in contrast to an arbitrary CS, an ecologically relevant CS is resistant to blocking, extinction, and increases in the CS-US interval and results in sensitized responding and stronger secondorder conditioning. Although the mechanisms of these effects are not fully understood, these findings have shown that signature learning phenomena are significantly altered when the kinds of stimuli that are likely to become conditioned under natural circumstances are used. The implications of these findings for an ecological approach to the study of learning are discussed.

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“…Domjan and colleagues found that males show preferences for partners bearing cues that were previous associated with copulatory access or visual exposure to a female (for review, see Domjan & Akins, 2011;Domjan & Holloway, 1998). Further, if species typical CSs (e.g., head and neck cues) were used, sexual conditioning was generally more robust, that is, occurring in a single trial (Hilliard, Nguyen, & Domjan, 1997), occurring with a significant delay between CS and US (Akins, 2000) and such learning appeared more resistant to extinction (Krause, Cusato, & Domjan, 2003;Domjan & Hall, 1986), blocking (Köksal, Domjan, & Weisman, 1994), and CS pre-exposure effects (Cusato & Domjan, 1998).…”

Section: Nonhumansmentioning

confidence: 98%

Considering the Role of Conditioning in Sexual Orientation

Hoffmann

2012

Arch Sex Behav

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The effects of learning on sexual orientation are rarely addressed in the literature. At the very least, such processes provide a means of elaborating upon orientation predispositions. Some aspects of our mates may inherently elicit a sexual response, but other attributes do so only after sexual experience with them. Animal research shows robust, direct effects of conditioning processes on partner preference with a few studies showing plasticity in preference for sex of partner. Descriptive research in humans suggests effects of experience on partner preference and, although experimental demonstrations of human sexual conditioning are neither numerous nor robust, sexual arousal is conditionable in women and men. With modern developments in learning theory (e.g., expectancy learning and evaluative conditioning), it seems appropriate to renew the investigation of contributions and limitations of conditioning processes to explaining how cues acquire erotic value and to attempt some integration between the sexual conditioning literature and research on sexual orientation or more generally sexual partner preference.

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One-trial appetitive conditioning in the sexual behavior system

Cited by 28 publications

References 21 publications

The Adaptive Significance of Sexual Conditioning: Pavlovian Control of Sperm Release

The Adaptive Significance of Sexual Conditioning: Pavlovian Control of Sperm Release

Learning with arbitrary versus ecological conditioned stimuli: Evidence from sexual conditioning

Considering the Role of Conditioning in Sexual Orientation

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